Outside Counsel

I was number 37 to vote at about 8:10 this morning-- there was a person in the booth in front of me, and two behind me when I left. Of course, the Delaware District is a poor bellwether for these things, but I anticipate a light turnout, despite the fair weather. It was slow moving, even though there weren't a lot of people, because the ballot includes delegates to the Democratic Judicial Nominating Committee for the Eighth Judicial District. Notwithstanding the fact that New York's present judicial selection system has been held unconstitutional, we don't have an alternative system in place, so we need to go through this charade one more time. On a list of twenty or so, you vote for nine. I counted one person who I believe is qualified to pick judges,(Hi Cathy!) and two who I think will be capable. The remainder are a motley mix. I like our incumbent Assemblyman-- for a New York State legislator he is pretty independent, and I believe he is hard-working. I do not see that he is particularly qualified to pick judges, and I resent the fact that he is going to be part of the process on the basis of the fact that he is an elected Democrat with high name recognition. Our incumbent City Councilman has never cast a vote that I have disagreed with. He is right-thinking and has done well by the district. I do not see that he is particularly qualified to pick judges, and I resent the fact that he is going to be part of the process on the basis of the fact that he is an elected Democrat with good name recognition. Accepting that any merit based selection system would likely include cats like Hoyt and LoCurto, it still astonishes me that I can look at the list of these people and barely recognize the majority. I am a well-informed, active voter who uses the court system every day, and yet the judicial selection system we have in place is utterly opaque to me. That is a broken system.